In the early 1930s, Enterprise was fitted with a prototype twin 6" turret in place of her two forward single mounts; and with the trials proving successful it was retained for the rest of her service career. This turret was later worked into the design of the Leander, Amphion and Arethusa classes. The turret installation occupied less space than the superimposed 'A' and 'B' guns of Emerald, therefore the bridge was placed further forward. The bridge was of a new design, being a single block topped by a director tower, rather than the traditional platforms built around the foremast and wheelhouse topped with a spotting top. This design of bridge would appear in the County-classcruisers.

After several months in home waters, Enterprise served with the British 4th Cruiser Squadron in the East Indies her first commission ending in December 1928. Her first commission was remarkable mostly for its culmination and the events that took place between 19 September and 10 December 1928 which are outlined under the history of the Enterprise Cup, a rugby union trophy that is still contested to this day in Kenya. Enterprise undertook several subsequent commissions on the East Indies Station, until she returned home and was reduced to care and maintenance on 4 July 1934, followed by a major refit. She returned to the East Indies in January 1936.

The cruiser Manchester relieved Enterprise on the East Indies Station at the end of 1937, and Enterprise came home. In 1938, she was employed to take crews to the China Station, returning home to pay off on 30 September 1938, when she was reduced to the Reserve Fleet.

After some repairs, Enterprise joined the newly formed Force H in June 1940 and set sail for the Mediterranean Sea where, in July, she participated in negotiations with the French Navy regarding the future of the French fleet in the war. Following the unsatisfactory outcome of the negotiations, she participated in Operation Catapult at Mers-El-Kébir. She also participated in the delivery of aircraft to Malta in late July.

On 28 December, she engaged a force of 11 German destroyers and torpedo boats, the tardy escort for their blockade runnerAlsterufer (which had been sunk the previous day by air attack). Enterprise sank the torpedo boat T26 with a torpedo, while T25 and Z27 were also sunk. Four other German ships were damaged in the engagement.

From 3–29 February 1944, Enterprise was docked at Devonport for refit, and from 27–31 March she was fitted for missile jamming gear at Devonport.

When the Normandy Landings started on 6 June 1944, Bombardment Force "A" bombarded St. Martin de Varreville. Enterpriseengaged the coastal defences of Cherbourg; in the ensuing action, her Captain and her Commander were both wounded, and the ship was brought back to Portland by the First Lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander Brown. Twenty days later, she was also involved in the bombardment of Querqueville, silencing the German guns there. German shore batteries opened fire, but caused no significant damage to Enterprise. During the D-day operations, Enterprise fired about 9,000 6-inch shells and required two overnight gun changes at Portsmouth.[3]

In July, she was deployed off the French coast in support of British operations, and on 17 July, she provided naval gunfire for two days in support for British attacks near Caen with the cruiser Mauritius and the monitorRoberts. In September, she was deployed in a similar capacity off the Dutch coast in support of the Second Army; however, she was not required to support the troops.

In October, after a contemplated transfer to the Royal Canadian Navy was not implemented, Enterprise was taken out of active service and placed in reserve at Rosyth.

Starting in May 1945, Enterprise helped return British troops from Asia and Africa. On 13 January 1946, she returned to the United Kingdom for the final time. She was handed over to BISCO for scrapping on 11 April, arriving at J Cashmore in Newport, Wales, on 21 April for breaking-up.